A creative, home-made, hand-made blog

What?! Yes! I tell you, it’s awesome.. if you like mint. You can use flavored syrups in a variety of drinks, and some are even good on ice cream or other desserts. This syrup is something I use in my iced tea, and I love it. LOVE.

It’s super simple, if you don’t think you’ll use a lot, don’t make a whole lot.

What You’ll Need:

A jar, bottle, or other clean, recycled container (I used an empty Amaretto bottle)

1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup Water

Mint

After you have a decent sized mint plant, and it’s growing wild, you can start “harvesting” it. I waited until mine started to flower. (Side note: any herb or edible plant has it’s best flavor right before flowering. You can discourage flowering by “pinching”, or cutting, off those buds, which will encourage more branching.)

All I did was take my kitchen scissors and go to town. I didn’t want to cut it back too hard, just in case our wonderful summer weather decided to heat up too much, but I had roughly 1 foot stems on the plant and I cut most of those down to roughly 6 inches. I left some stems longer, and just removed the buds, but I was also making a rather large batch!

I know that crushing the leaves and stems releases the flavor, but I just didn’t want to chop all this mint. I took it by the handfuls and just crushed it by twisting and bending it. Your hands will smell delightfully minty. As will your kitchen. If you aren’t like me, and you want to chop it up, go crazy. Chop up everything. Stems and leaves.

Get a decent sized pot and add your water and your sugar. If you want more, the ratio is 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. This should produce a fairly syrupy product. If you want it a little thinner, you can add a little more water.

Turn the heat on medium and stir to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved, turn the heat up to med-high and look for a rolling simmer, not really a hard boil. Once you get there, let it simmer/boil for a few minutes, 2-3. (Side note: It’s SUPER IMPORTANT NOT TO BOIL THIS TOO LONG. A few minutes will do. 2-3.) turn off the heat and remove the pot.

NOW.. Throw in your mint! If you were like me and didn’t chop it up, then shove it in. Stir the syrup and make sure the mint is covered or at least wet. Cover your pot with a lid. The minty flavor oils can evaporate, so try to leave the lid in place. I know how nice it smells, but just leave it.

Leave it alone. For a while. The heat from the syrup will “cook” the mint. After oh, 10-15 minutes, go ahead a take a look inside. The mint should resemble cooked greens, like cooked spinach. It will be darker green than it was when we started. If not, stir it around again and leave it alone again.

If everything looks great, it’s time to strain the mint into our bottle. I used a coffee filter in a funnel. It’s what I had on hand! And it worked!

Just pour everything into the strainer/filter and funnel, slowly! You don’t want to be over zealous in your excitement for that first minty iced tea and spill syrup everywhere (like me. Cough. Cough).

Once it’s all strained, just squeeze the mint, or push on it with the back of a spoon to get out any extra syrup then throw away the mint. It’s all used up.

TA-DA! You have just made minty syrupy goodness!

Mint Iced Tea

Mint Syrup to taste. I just “eyeball it”, but I’m guessing it’s close to a tablespoon per 16 oz. glass. It might be more or less, just depends on how minty you want it and how strong your tea is! ;)

Okay, so some of you think this is the simplest and easiest thing ever, and you’re wondering why I’m writing about it, others of you are thinking.. “What tea?”

Sun Tea. It’s easy. It’s a very frugal way to not heat up the house with a burner from the stove, and save the energy you would use heating that stove, and the A/C it would take to cool it back off.

And it’s just fun for the kids, a lot of the time!

What You’ll Need:

A Jar (I used a clean pickle jar)

Your favorite tea (in bags or if you want to use loose tea, you’ll need a tea ball/infuser)

Fill the jar with water and throw in your tea bags (or the infuser with your loose tea). Now find a sunny spot outside. Leave the jar in the sun for a while, until you like the strength. It will take a while, depending on how warm it is outside. Now, in Oklahoma, it can get pretty hot, so a few hours will do. But if you live in a place where it’s not as warm, you might be looking at 4 hours or more. This is not a speedy thing.

Once you like the strength, pull the jar inside and finish it with your sugar (because around here, that’s how we drink it). If you don’t like sweet tea (what is WRONG with you?) than you’re all done!

Kids think this is pretty cool, so its a great thing for them to help you with. :)

If you like to garden so that you can really home-make things yourself, than you’ll enjoy this one.

I like mint flavor. I like the smell. I’m not in love or anything, but I find it pleasant, and even enjoy mint tea on occasion. When I found out that mint plants were easy to grow (and I mean, they-turn-into-a-weed-if-you’re-not-careful, easy) I wanted one.

I’ve actually grown it before, having tried sowing it from seed. This is uber difficult. Apparently, mint seeds have a 50% chance of growing, so out of a seed packet, you’ll get lucky if you get 50% of those seeds to grow. (However, germinating the seeds in a paper towel first, does do some good, that’s another post!).

So anyway, if you’re like me, and you’re broke more often than not, You’ll love finding a way to get this plant without paying for it.

Here are some ways to do it:

Ask around! Mint is SO prolific and easy to grow that if someone has ever made the mistake of putting it directly into their garden, they will be digging it up for years and years. Most people that have a decent sized plant will be more than happy to provide you a plant or two.

Ask for a cutting. If your friends or family don’t really have a lot of mint, but they do have a plant. Mint is SUPER easy to grow from a cutting, and I will explain how to do this in a moment.

Freecycle.org : Go look on Freecycle.org and ask for a plant or two. If you’re frugal, you should know all about this site. It’s like an email list/group of people that all post things they want/need or are looking to get rid of. It’s all for free.

Lastly, you can do what I did, and find some!

Okay, so number 4 is pretty vague. What I did was found out that one of my favorite restaurants had mint growing outside. I have been their enough to have seen them hacking at it with a weedwhacker. That smell is distinct. You can’t mistake mint.

So the last time we went to eat there (which was nearly 6 months or more ago, now) I pinched off a decent stem with my fingers. I had planned to do this before we left, so I had a wet paper napkin from dinner. I put the “cutting” into this paper napkin, making sure the “cut” end was inside the wet napkin.

Once I got home, I picked off the last two leaves (make sure you get one that has 3-4 leaf “sets”, for good measure) and I put the cut end into a cup of water. I also made sure the area I had picked the leaves off was in the water, because this is where the roots will shoot out from first. I put it in my window and made sure to keep the water at the same level.

After about 2 weeks, I had roots, and the plant was ready for the outdoors! TA-DA! Mint plant for free.

Here, you can see the roots starting to grow.

Now all you have to do is get some soil (I used top soil), poke a hole, put the plant in, and cover. Water regularly until you begin seeing new growth (which won’t be long). Once it gets in there, it will start going crazy! It likes sun, so put it somewhere sunny!

I put mine into cinder blocks, as part of a raised bed. This will keep it from spreading anywhere I don’t want it!

Do you have some Ugly Apples? You know what I mean, maybe they sat on your counter or in your fridge, neglected and forgotten. Maybe they were home grown, so they aren’t all perfect and pretty.

I hate the thought of throwing out good food. (Think of those kids that don’t ever get to eat, besides the money that you’re wasting!) Well, here’s a solution for those apples that people might have otherwise thrown out. Are you ready?

Make Homemade Applesauce

..In your crockpot, no less!

I peeled..

..cut, and cored these apples into regular size pieces.

Then I added them to the crock pot with the water, sugar, and cinnamon.

I covered with the lid and turned it on to cook all day (8 hours on my machine). I was going to be home so it didn’t matter how long it took, to me.

Essentially, all you’re trying to do is get the apples mushy. Once they get there, all you need is a masher (or a fork if you only have a few apples) and mash them all up. I liked the long time, low temp method, mashing when I thought they were soft enough, then I cooked it longer. It made the house smell AWESOME. I just kept mashing until I got it to a smoothness I liked.

Voila! You’ve just made applesauce! Once you’ve made it the first time, you can always take away some of the sugar, or add more cinnamon, or take out the cinnamon, you know? Play with it a little. You won’t be disappointed!

So, I am not a “Prepper”, necessarily. My family does not own a tract of land in the middle of nowhere with a bunker stocked with an endless supply of food or ammo and guns. However, part of my blog is to get back to the basics, which is what survival essentially teaches you, too. I like to know a lot of these things simply because I want to know how to do it for myself, just in case I ever need to, or heck, want to! Sometimes, it’s just cheaper!

So, if you want to learn all the things I am learning, you should follow my Survival board on Pinterest! I think of things I might need to know in case of something like Hurricane Katrina happens, and trade goods are how you get items you need. What if there are no emergency services? What if you had to deliver a baby yourself? I now know how. Just in case.

So follow my Survival board and learn things with me! Or heck, if you have skills or ideas for skills that could be helpful, leave me some comments! I’d love to hear them!

Yeah, I said it. DIY Drinks. I’m cheap. lol. Don’t get me wrong, I love going to the bar and having some fun, but when you’re a mom and dad and you don’t have 50$ to drop at said bar, you don’t have as much fun. So enters the “get together”. You find someone to watch the baby and you get people to come over. I love entertaining so this is fun for me. :)

Since New Years is coming up, I thought this would be a great post.

12 DIY Drinks for New Year’s Eve (in no particular order)

White Russian – A classic cocktail made with coffee liqueur (Kahlua), vodka and either cream or milk. I generally make it in a “lowball” or 8 oz glass filled with ice, and poured with 1 oz vodka and 1 oz coffee liqueur, topped with milk. Of course, you can play with the amounts til you like it.

Wine Spritzer – wine (any wine, cheap, expensive, whatever) and sprite, or club soda or 7 up, if you prefer.

For those of you that aren’t sure, 1 oz is equal to one shot glass. I tried to keep this list down to a simple list of alcohol, because if you’re like us, you may not have the ability to actually go out and buy everything you need for all the “coolest” drinks.

Here’s a fun one. My mother has drank coffee since I can remember. In fact, I remember making her coffee when I was young, and carefully trying to walk with the cup back to her bedroom without spilling it, to wake her up in the morning. My brother and I both did this all the time. So now, I’m older, and I, too, appreciate coffee. So when my mother asked for coffee mugs this year for Christmas, you know that I had to make something, and it had to work with my non-existent budget. ;)

So here we go!

What You’ll Need:

Mugs from a thrift store, white or light colored

Sharpies or Porcelain Pen

Oven

So this is super simple. Get some mugs from a thrift store. Our local Salvation Army has plenty of houseware items like this, and I scored a set of four matching mugs for less than 2$. My husband and I have somehow managed to accumulate what seems to be hundreds of Sharpie markers, so I had no problem there. (BUT I did end up buying paint pens, and I’ll explain why later).

Clean your mugs and remove any stickers from the store. I ran mine through the dishwasher and sanitize cycle. Find some quirky sayings, or your favorite quotes, or anything you want to write or draw on your mugs. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Now, go ahead and draw or write on your mugs.

Once your oven is heated up, use a shallow pan or cookie sheet to place your mugs on. Then pop them in the oven and wait. I heated mine up for 30 minutes. The first time. I say the first time because after I pulled out the first mug and let it cool for an hour or two, the sharpie scratched right off when I used my fingernail. This freaked me out a little, so I bought those paint pens. HOWEVER, after I did the other 3 mugs with the paint pens, and I was ready to clean the first mug off and try again, the sharpie wouldn’t come off! I scrubbed it, and ran it through the dishwasher and it wasn’t coming off. EVENTUALLY, using LOTS of elbow grease and a “scratchless” scrubby sponge, all of the sharpie came off and I redid the mug with the paint pens to match the others. (But it was apparent to me, that the sharpie method was just fine!)

On the other three mugs, I did use 350 degrees for one hour and I recommend leaving your mugs overnight before throwing them into the dishwasher. They ARE dishwasher safe! (Especially if you use the paint pens)

Have fun! These are really fun, and if you have older kids, they can make some, too, for the perfect permanent artwork. :)

In my post, DIY Personalized Mugs, I talked about my mother’s love for coffee. Well, since she asked for coffee mugs, I wanted to add something to make it even cuter. So, since I recently bought myself some International Delight York Peppermint liquid coffee creamer, it gave me an idea. I could put a few “samples” of coffee creamers into her mugs. I don’t know if she has tried the ones I plan to give her, but I know my mom’s tastes, and I figure she’ll either like them or she’ll have tried them already! ;)

What You’ll Need:

Small Bottles or Jars

Coffee Creamers

So, anyway, I had an empty sample bottle from a company that sent me a sample syrup, and decided it would be perfect. You can collect a few from Cracker Barrel, with their glass maple syrups, or you can find them all over the place. Find something cute and go with it. You just want to make sure they are small and not too big. Its supposed to be a “Sample Pack”.

I cleaned my bottles and took off the stickers. If you need to, use a razor to get off anything particularly stuck. Alcohol, q-tips/cotton balls, and a razor work well for this.

After the bottles were clean, I poured in my creamers as I opened them. Since I don’t regularly have two or three open at once, I did this over a period of time. Since I knew it was going to be a Christmas gift, I began this in November, freezing the creamers until I am ready to give them to her. I wrote what each one was on the bottle. (And that isn’t so pretty, but you can make it prettier using your own stickers and a printer, or prettier handwriting! :p.)

Once you have as many creamer samples as you want to make, freezing as you go, if you did it like me, then you will want to package them up! I plan to simply place them into the DIY mugs that I have made and wrap them up with little gift bags or tissue paper and ribbon.

Have fun with it. You can even make DIY syrups instead, and use those! Happy Holidays!

So I was on Twitter and happened to see this project for a DIY skull tshirt for boys, that had actually been adapted from this project.

However, I didn’t like the results of the first project and was worried my son would end up ripping the fabric with the second, adapted tshirt project. So, I adapted that one into my own! :)

Needless to say, kids grow fast. Super fast. Ridiculously and super-humanly fast. Their clothes don’t last long. So this tshirt project sounded great, because it was reusing old shirts. However, when I thought about it, I realized if I used old shirts, my son would, maybe, get to wear this thing once. So I used two old shirts of mine. They were just old unisex shirts that I had used for yard work. Nothing special and I was getting rid of them anyway.

So here’s what I did;

What You’ll Need:

Two T-shirts

Needle

Thread

Stencil or design

Washable marker or chalk

Sharp scissors

First things first; if you’re using a shirt with any graphics, turn it inside out. I had a red shirt and a white shirt. I liked the idea of white showing under the red, so I had to flip the red one inside out because it had a logo on the front.

After flipping the shirts to their desired side, I sewed my shirts together. I hand sewed along the seams down the arms, around the arms, along the bottom seam, and along the back of the collar. I didn’t want to fuss with one cut up, holey shirt in my washer, so I sewed them together.

Stitch along the seams of both shirts to keep them attached. I sewed them using black thread to have it stand out.

Now came the fun part; you’ve got to draw a design, or else use a simple one from the internet. A friend of mine suggested using pumpkin carving templates, and that sounds marvelous. I free-handed a skull face onto some blank paper.

Create a stencil by drawing out your design on paper, then cutting out the pieces you want to use as your stencil. Use chalk or a marker to trace this image onto your shirt.

Once you’ve got your drawing or template, you need to transfer it to your shirt. I did this by cutting out my drawing and using it as a stencil. I just happened to have chalk, so I used that to draw the stencil on the shirt.

Once you have traced the image onto your shirt, then you just have to cut out the image out of the top shirt. If you cut both shirts, you’ll end up with just a bunch of holes! After I made mine, I realized it might have been easier to cut out my image BEFORE sewing the shirts, but oh well. :)

Once everything has been cut out, I sewed along the image. Not only did this look cool (to me), but it will help keep the shirts from being torn up as easy. Use your own judgement, but this is what I did. :)

Sew along the image to help keep it from tearing up.. if you want.

Now you’ve made a skull t-shirt! You can use any image, but after this one, I suggest using something with big holes, like the eyes in my skull face. Those teeth were HELL to cut out and worse to trace! It WAS worth it, but I will be making two more shirts, and I am avoiding intricate designs!

These would be great for Christmas gifts, and totally personalizable. If you use a sewing machine, these would be super quick and easy. They look a lot like some shirts I’ve seen at a major retail store. I loved the look. :)